Chloe King Uniter
by buggy11
Summary: Chloe King just figured out that she is the Uniter of the race called Mai, and now she is being attacked by some creepy dude with a lot of Scars on his face. All she wants is for everything to go back to normal, but she starts falling for a cocky British Mai guy.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first story for my account, so let's see how it goes.**

**I'm going to stay straight off that I am a one hundred percent Chalek fan. In my mind, Brian shouldn't even be an option. (Sorry Brian fans.) I'm still debating if I want Brian in my stories, if you want me to include him then please post a review saying **

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Once again I am running away from something. My heart pounded in my chest as I took short, tired breaths. The almost unbearable pain in my left leg was slowing me down, and it seemed like the chaser knew it as well. I heard the footsteps behind me and tried to run even faster. He was getting closer, and there was no way I was going to be able to out run him for much longer. I got out my phone and dialed.

"Chloe, what's up? When I went to your house you-" The British accent asked.

"I need help." I barely managed to interrupt.

"Chloe what's going on? Are you okay? Where are you?" His voice was suddenly alert. The footsteps got closer, I turned around and saw that he finally found me, and he was carrying a very sharp looking knife. I couldn't help it, I screamed.

"Chloe!" I tried to run faster, but I ended up tripping on a tree root. Before I could move, the knife was pushed up against my throat.

"Say anything else, and it won't only be you who loses another life." He threatened as he took the phone from my hand and hung up.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" I asked angrily. His eyes, which originally where mocking me, turned ice cold.

"Because you are a danger to humans." Without thinking I quickly shoved against him, causing him to fly backwards. I considered trying to run again, but I knew I was too tired not to mention my leg was hurt. The only option I had was to fight, and hope that Alek managed to find me.

As he stepped closer I unsheathed my claws. "Stay away from me." I warned him, trying to sound tough, but he didn't buy it.

"What are you going to do?" We circled each other slowly, both of us waiting for a moment to strike. "You're tired." He changed the knife to his right hand before continuing. "You're hurt." He laughed as he looked at my leg. "And you're a sixteen year old girl without your protectors." Where was Alek when I needed him the most? "You're dead Uniter." And with that he lunched at me.

I barely dodged his attack, but ended up falling on the ground again, and scraping my arm against a huge rock. After quickly standing up, I saw a tree with many high branches and without thinking I leaped. I was too high for him to get to me, but I knew it would only last so long. He looked furious until he pulled out a ninja star.

The pain was enormous. When I tried to turn and jump to a higher branch, the ninja star hit me in the same leg as before, causing me to loose my grip on the branch and fall to the ground. My right ankle twisted the wrong was in the drop, and was bleeding extensively. He laughed, knowing he had won. It was impossible for me to run or fight now. I was a sitting duck.

In less then a second he was pushing the knife to my throat again. "This might take a while considering how you still have eight lives to go." I closed my eyes, just waiting for it to be over with, but suddenly he thrown away from me.

"Stay the hell away from her." A British voice commanded. Behind Alek stood Jasmine, both looking equally as frightening.

"Alek, get Chloe out of here." She told him. He just continued glaring at my attacker. I glanced at the ninja star that was still in my leg and quickly pulled it out, holding in a cry of pain. Without even thinking about it first I threw the ninja star at him, hitting him straight in the stomach. He glared at us before running away.

"Alek!" Grudgingly he walked back towards us. "Let's get her out of here." Alek nodded and picked me up bridal style. I screamed in pain when my foot moved and he quickly stopped.

"Don't worry. We'll be at Valentina's soon." His voice completely different now then just a minute ago. It was relaxing, and safe. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and buried my head in his shoulder. By the time we were at Valentina's, I was nearly asleep.

"Time to wake up Chloe." Alek whispered in my ear. When I opened my eyes I saw that we were in the living room.

"Put her on the couch." Jasmine told him. Before Alek had the chance to set me down, Valentina walked through the door. She glanced at my leg, and then glared at Alek and Jasmine.

"What happened? You two were suppose to look after her!"


	2. Chapter 2 Relax

**I am so sorry that it took me so long to update. I was slowly freaking out about finals. (Who needs biology anyways? ****J) Now that it is summer, I am going to be able to update much more often. I would like to give a little shout out to Iwant9lives2live because they were the very first reviewer I had. YAY! I hope that you like the next chapter and please please review.**

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After we finished explaining Valentina looked furious with us. One look at her face made that pretty clear. "Valentina please don't be mad at them. It's all my fault. I'm the one who-" I tried to explain.

"They know better to leave you alone!" Alek and Jasmine didn't say anything in their defense. "Chloe, let me see your foot." She came over and knelt beside me. With a very quick motion she straightened my ankle. I let out a little cry. "It's definitely broken." I could've told her that much. "How could you let this happened?"

"I'm sorry mom. I should've been with her." Jasmine was just going to stand there and take the blame? It was my fault in the first place.

"Alek and Jasmine saved my life. Without them Scarface creep would've killed me. They're the reason why I'm alive."

"No. They're the reason why you're here. If they were protecting you in the first place, then this wouldn't have happened."

"I'm the reason why this happened, not them. I wanted to go for a run by myself to clear my head. I didn't wait for them to follow me." I explained.

"Chloe, have I not stressed the importance of being careful? There are many people who would wish to harm the Uniter." Yeah, it was apparently way to much to ask for one simple night. No protectors, or training. No horrible scar face creep trying to kill me. Her cell phone rang before she said anything else. "This is important. I have to take it." She turned to stare at Jasmine. "Under no circumstances can you leave this apartment." And with that she left.

As soon as the door closed Jasmine and Alek started moving. Jasmine went over to the cupboard and pulled out Advil and bandages while Alek came over by me and cleaned the dried blood off my foot. It was dead quiet in the apartment as they worked. Before I knew it, my leg was fully bandaged, as well as my arm. Jasmine took out her phone and left into the other room.

"She's right you know." Alek said quietly. "You can't go off by yourself like that. It's too dangerous. We should've been with you. If we were, then this wouldn't have happened. It's our fault."

"You can't blame yourselves. You couldn't have known that I was going off by myself without telling you."

"Why did you leave?" Alek asked.

"No reason. I just wanted to be by myself for once." I was always surrounded by people guarding me, it started to feel like I was suffocating.

"You know that's not an option anymore Chloe. It's too dangerous." Alek said softly. "You always need someone looking out for you."

"So I'm just going to have to been watched every single moment of every single day?" I asked furiously. Sitting up, I took two pain killers, and hoped it would help the pain.

"If that is what it takes to keep you safe, then yes. You know the assassin wont leave you alone until he's dead. And even if we do manage to kill him, there will still be others who would want to harm you." Alek said as he sat down on the sofa next to me.

I knew I was going to lose this argument, just like I had all the other times we had it, but I couldn't let it go. I didn't want any of this. I hated the idea that I had protectors that would die to protect me, everyone around me was in danger.

"You can't protect me forever." The thought of dying again scared me so much.

"We can't not protect you." Alek stated as stared at my bandaged leg.

"Being around me is too dangerous." If Alek wasn't Mai, then he wouldn't have even heard me, but he was so he did. His eyes quickly shot back up to mine.

"You don't really believe that, do you?"

"Look at the facts," I declared, "Xavier died because I kissed him. Jasmine got a knife thrown in her back because she tried to stop it from hitting me. You and Jasmine just risked your safety to keep me away from-"

"Chloe," He interrupted, "It's not your fault. Nothing is your fault so stop blaming yourself." As he said that, he brushed his fingertips against mine. He didn't move them away from my hand though, instead they just lingered on top of mine.

When I opened my mouth to protest he interrupted again. "Chloe, it is not your fault that the Order decided to go after you." I knew that he was just trying to make me feel better, but I was still worked up. He paused for a moment before continuing. "You need to relax. You're safe for now." Saying that I need to relax is a little harder than actually relaxing.

"And you're not relaxing." He noted. I was tempted to whack him, but I didn't. Without another word he got up and went to the freezer and pulled out some ice-cream. "I highly doubt that ice cream is going to make everything better, but it can't hurt anything."

"I don't want any." The thought of eating something made my stomach go into knots. Alek of course ignored me and gave me a huge bowlful anyways.

"It's not poisoned." Alek joked. I tried to smile back, but all I managed was something that wasn't a frown. With a sigh, Alek put down his ice cream and reached for mine. "Close your eyes." He told me.

"What?"

"Just do it." I closed my eyes skeptically. I heard Alek get up and stand behind the couch. "Focus on your breathing, and nothing else."

"Is this some sort of yoga technique?" I asked as I started to open my eyes.

"Just keep your eyes closed and focus." Deciding that it would take less time if I just did what he asked, I closed my eyes. "Take deep, slow breaths. Don't think about anything else." How is this thing helping? "Now concentrate on the ticking clock. Don't hear anything but the clock."

"Alek, I don't think I-"

"You can." I focused in on the sound, but ended up listening to something else; Alek's heartbeat. The slow, calm heartbeat of Alek instantly smoothed me. I don't know how long we were there for; it could've been for a minute, or an hour. "Did it work?" My eyes shot open, and I saw Alek leaning above me.

"Thanks." I said, hoping my cheeks weren't flaming red.

"Anytime." He pulled away and went to go sit on the other couch.

"Sorry about that guys, I had to make a few phone calls." Jasmine said as she walked back into the room.

Grabbing my cell phone from the table next to me, I saw that it was already almost nine. "I have to go. My mom is going to freak soon if I don't come home."

"You heard my mom. She doesn't want any of us to leave the apartment." Jasmine spoke for the first time since her mom left. "Besides, how are you going to explain that to your mom?" She pointed to my leg.

I thought about it for a moment, and came up with nothing. "So what am I going to do? If I don't come home soon, she'll freak and call the cops."

"Call her and say your staying at my place." Figuring that there was no other option I dialed.

"Chloe. Where have you been? I haven't heard from you all day!" I stared at Jasmine. What was our cover story?

"I'm sorry mom. Jasmine…" Jasmine what? I should've thought about this before I called. "Jasmine caught her boyfriend cheating on her today, so I've been with her." Cheating? Really?

"Oh that poor thing. I didn't even realize she had a boyfriend." Alek was slowly cracking up and Jasmine looked like she was ready to smack the phone out of my hand.

"Yeah, she's pretty devastated about it. I was wondering if I could stay at her house tonight. Kind of like a girls night. She could really use it."

"Of course." Yes! The story actually worked. "Wait a minute. Is Bed Boy going to be there as well?" My cheeks started to turn bright red, and Alek started to laugh even harder.

"No mom. He has a basketball game tonight and it's an away game."

"Okay then. Make sure to call me in the morning." We said our good byes and then hung up.

"She calls me Bed Boy? That is hilarious." Ignoring him I turned to Jasmine.

"How long do I have to stay here? Sooner or later my mom is going to want me home." I told her.

"Until my mother says it's safe I guess." Oh joy.


	3. Nightmare

**Hey everyone. Thank you all who have been reviewing! Hopefully more of you will review (Hint Hint ****J) I hope you like the chapter. I want to clarify when this takes place in case it's been a little confusing. It takes place after Chloe transforms, but in my version I have kept Scarface. Also it takes place before the finale and Dogs of War (Little spoiler, I am thinking about bringing back Jackals). Chloe has only died once. Oh, and sadly I do not own the Nine Lives of Chloe King. **

"Chloe King where have you been!" Amy shouted in the phone. Alek and Jasmine went into their rooms, probably eavesdropping, when I was still in the living room considering how I wasn't able to walk well. I was supposed to meet her over an hour ago. We were going to have dinner together with Paul.

"Amy I am so sorry. Something came up." I can't believe I forgot about our dinner. Well I guess it wasn't like I had a choice, but it still made me a pretty bad friend.

"What do you mean? What came up? Are you okay?" I sighed and told her part of the story about what happened. There was no point to freak her out so much. "Are you okay? How bad is your leg? How long are you going to have to stay at Valentina's? What-" I cut her off from all of her questions.

"I'm fine. My leg will be healed soon. I have no clue how long I'm going to stay here. All Valentina said that I had to stay here until its safe."

"They can't keep you there forever." Amy pouted. It does ruin our plans of our sleepover and dinner tonight.

"Try telling them that." I scoffed. "There was no way they are going to let me leave their apartment now."

"Then it's settled. We'll be there in twenty." Wait, she was going to come here? To Valentina's apartment? That really doesn't sound like a good plan.

"Amy I don't think-" I tried to say but got cut off by the dial tone. Well this should be interesting. I don't know why she thinks it is a good idea for them to come over to the apartment, but Amy was Amy. She doesn't ever change her mind when she comes up with a plan.

"Amy and Paul are coming over then?" Alek asked me as he walked back into the room. I thought he would be angry that they were coming over here, or a little annoyed, but instead he seemed like he was happy they were coming.

"Yes, eavesdropper, they are coming over here." He gave me one of his famous smirks that always seem to get on my nerves. "Do you mind?"

"Nope, not at all." He really doesn't mind that Paul is coming over? The same Alek who thought that Paul was one of the most annoying person ever?

"Amy and Jasmine are coming over here?" Jasmine asked us. "Sweet. That should be fun. I've wanted to ask Amy to help pick out an outfit for my date with Derek."

"You were supposed to go on a date tonight with Derek." I remembered. "I'm so sorry that I ruined it. Maybe you could still go catch a movie or something."

"Don't worry about it Chloe. We rescheduled for Sunday. Besides, you heard my mom; we aren't allowed to leave the apartment. Anyways, I thought we broke up after I found him cheating on me." She joked, trying to lighten the mood.

We heard a knock at the door. "I'll go get it." Jasmine told us. A second later Amy and Paul walked in holding two large pizzas.

"We thought you might be hungry, so we brought a large cheese and a large meat lover's pizza. But it looks like you are already full on ice cream." Amy told us. I looked down on the coffee table and saw my uneaten ice cream next to Alek's. Amy came over to me and gave me an awkward side ways hug. Luckily she knew not to bring up today's events.

Alek went to take care of the ice cream dishes and grab some paper plates for the pizza. When he returned, he saw that we were debating over what movie to watch. It appeared to be a decision between The Terminator and 27 Dresses. Amy and Jasmine wanted 27 Dresses, I was undecided, and Paul was for the Terminator.

"I'm going to go grab something to drink. Anybody want something?" I asked and they all shook their heads. As soon as I stepped up, my leg gave out and I fell back onto the couch.

"Smart," He smirked as he walked over to the couch. "I'll go get you a drink while you stay here." I took a few deep breaths, trying to breathe through the pain.

"Are you okay?" Amy asked me.

"Fine," I said while ignoring the throbbing pain of my right foot, "Just feeling very stupid." Alek came back carrying two cokes. He handed me one before sitting down.

"As you should." He said. I tried to whack him but he was lucky that he sat far enough out where I couldn't reach him. "So what's the verdict? What are we watching?"

"27 Dresses, I think we've had enough action for one day." Jasmine put in the movie and pushed play. The pizza's were gone within twenty minutes, but I didn't even manage to finish up half of a slice. My stomach was still in knots, making it near impossible to keep anything down.

"Are you all done?" Amy asked as she was gathering up the plates. When I nodded she frowned but didn't say anything.

I felt so exhausted from today, that about halfway through the movie, I felt myself nodding off to sleep. I almost fell asleep on the couch when I felt someone picking me up.

"Let's get you to bed." The British accent smugly whispered.

"I can walk to the guest bedroom myself." I said even though it was the last thing I wanted to do.

"Yeah, because that worked out so well last time." Alek laughed. "You might want to wait until tomorrow to start walking again." He gently put me on the bed, but instead of leaving, he sat on it. I groaned and turned sideways, facing away from him. "You could've been killed today."

"But I wasn't so just let it go and let me sleep." I groaned.

"You have to be more careful with your lives." He continued as if I never talked. "You have to stay in the apartment. No going out of it. Valentina knows what she's talking about when she says it's dangerous."

"Where would I go?"

"Just promise me Chloe. You won't leave this apartment until Valentina gives you permission and you have protection with you. " At this point I turned around and faced him, sadly with my eyes open.

"Really Alek?"

"Please just promise me. You won't leave the apartment."

"Just please, promise me." He said before I could say anything else. I couldn't believe that he was trying to get me to promise. That was going a little far.

"I promise that I wont leave the apartment until Valentina says that it's safe." He stared at me for a little bit before realizing that that's all he was going to get from me.

Alek brushed back some of my hair on my face. "I'll let you get some sleep."

"Alek," He turned around to face me. "Thank you for tonight. I don't want to think about what would've happened if you didn't show up."

"That makes it two or three times that I saved your life?" He smirked. It only took a few minutes after he left before I fell asleep. Unfortunately my sleep didn't last as long as I wanted it to.

_I was running through the tree's again, the branches were scratching against my arms as I pushed past them to continue running. My breath was ragged, and I was slowing down. I didn't know how much longer I could keep it up, but the people in black hoods continued to chase me, so I continued to run._

_I finally ran into the parking lot of Coit Tower, a place where there were other people, a place that I might be safe at. As fast as I could, I ran past the cars in the parking lot and into the building. When I glanced back, I saw the people in the hoods running past each other, trying to figure out where I ran to. I didn't dare hesitate too long, just incase they figured out where I left to._

_Quickly, I started to climb the stairs that led to the top of the tower. When I fell while running on the stairs, I barely felt the pain, the adrenaline rush was too much for me to notice it. Finally, I reached the top of the building, and when I glanced around, I saw no one around. I walked up to the edge of the tower and glanced down. The two dark hooded figures ran to each other in the parking lot. After a few seconds of talking, they split up to search again. _

_Suddenly there was someone was behind me. I twirled around and saw a man with three scars, almost cast like scars, on his face. "Good bye Chloe." He said, and before I could even react he pushed me off Coit Tower with a groan. The time seemed to slow down as I fell to my doom, just waiting for the impact. The pain was excruciating, almost as if I broke every bone in my body, and died. _

**Anybody recognize the dream?**


	4. I'm tired of getting lied to

**I am soooo sorry this took so long. I rewrote this chapter at least four times, trying to figure out which one would help along the story the most. Hopefully you will like the version I picked. Please review and enjoy.**

"Chloe." Someone loudly said when shaking me. "Chloe!" My eyes flew open as I quickly sat up, gasping for air. It was only a dream, only a dream I chanted to myself, but it wasn't. It was a memory of what happened when I lost my first life. It wasn't an ordinary dream; it was like I was living it. The terror, the tiredness, the pain, I felt it all at the same amounts that I did when they happened for real. "Chloe?" A voice questioned. I turned to my left and saw Alek sitting on the side of my bed.

Without thinking I threw my arms around his neck and buried my head in his shoulder. "It's okay. It was only a dream." He murmured quietly, trying to smooth me. I shook my head in his shoulder, trying to tell him, without words, that it wasn't only a dream. He wrapped his arms around me and started to rub my back in circular motions with one hand. "What was the dream about?" I stayed quiet, just wanting it to go away instead of talking about it, but I knew that it was better just to get it over with. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself, before I started to speak.

"The dream wasn't just a dream. It was…" I trailed off, not knowing which words to describe the horror. "I relived through the time when I died. It wasn't like just a dream; it was like I actually lived through it again, without knowing what was going to happen next. It was exactly like when it happened before. Everything was the same; the smell, the place, even my thoughts and feelings. I didn't know why it was happening and I didn't know about Mai." I muttered into his shoulder.

"It won't happen again. You won't die again." Alek said, back to his cocky self while still being comforting. Sitting there in his arms made me feel completely safe for the first time in weeks. "I will always be there to protect you." We stayed like that for a little bit before I slowly pulled away from him. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was two am which means that I was only asleep for four hours.

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

"You started screaming and thrashing around in your sleep at around one thirty. When you screamed I thought that you were being taken away from the Order, it was loud and horrible. I was relieved that when I ran into your room, I saw that you were safe, but you were still freaky. No matter what I did, you wouldn't wake up. Well I guess you finally did wake up at one fifty." That means the dream lasted as long as I was being chased for in real life.

"I didn't wake up Jasmine, did I?" That would be terrible. Not only would I have made a complete fool of my self because of a dream and wake up Alek on one of his few chances at sleep, but also Jasmine's.

"No, she's still asleep. I've always been a lighter sleeper than Jas."

"I'm sorry I woke you up, especially when you really need the sleep." The one night he doesn't have to stay up on my rooftop all night and actually sleep is the night I wake him up when I'm screaming.

"Don't worry about it." We stayed quiet for a moment before he spoke again, ruining the peace. "You should get some more sleep. It's really late."

"I don't think I can."

"Well, we could just watch some TV then." Without another word, he picked me up and walked us to the living room. He laid me on the couch and went to sit in at the end of it.

"You know you can go to sleep. You don't have to stay awake with me. "

"I know. " He switched onto a basketball game, and although I would normally protest, I stayed quiet. I don't know how long we watched sports before I slowly felt myself fall asleep.

Somehow in the morning, I found myself lying on the couch with Alek's arm around my waist. What was I suppose to do? Wait for him to wake up or just try to get out without him knowing? When I glanced at the clock I saw that it was seven in the morning, so I decided to try to get some more sleep when I heard the sound of the door being closed, and saw Jasmine trying to sneak in quietly. What was she doing out? We weren't supposed to leave the apartment.

"Jasmine, what were you doing out? Valentina-" I stopped talking when she turned around to face me. She had a black eye and a few scratches on her face. Her arms were also covered in scratches and bruises.

"Jas, what happened? " Without thinking first, I tried to stand only to have to sit down right away. Stupid foot, when was it going to heal? Because of my sudden movement, Alek woke up.

"What's going on?" He asked in confusion as he sat up. His confusion seemed to disappear when he saw Jasmine. Jasmine looked at him like they were trying to come up with a cover story, making it pretty clear that they were hiding something.

"Tell me, it's obvious that you guys are hiding something." Alek sighed and motioned for Jasmine to explain. I glanced between them and saw that whatever they knew was big enough for them to be tense. Jasmine looked like she got no sleep at all, so wherever she went; it was for the whole night. Alek looked like he was about to get us all too some place safer.

"My mother got a tip from a Mai who saw Scarface. Unfortunately they were too far away to get to him before he ran off. So they sent me and two other Mai to find him." She admitted quietly. Was the only reason why he was so nice last night was because he was trying to keep me from figuring out Jasmine wasn't there?

"You went after Scarface?" I asked outraged, then turned to Alek. "And you knew, didn't you? Last night, I didn't wake you. You were already awake because Jasmine woke you up before leaving so you could make sure I didn't try to go after her."

They didn't say anything for a few minutes.

"I'm sorry, but what would you have done if we woke you up and told you? There is no way that you would've stayed here." Yeah, because it's ways too dangerous for anyone to go after him, especially when there was only three people against him.

"And you going on a suicidal mission was better? You should've brought us with you. Five mai would've been better." Although I knew that they would've never in a million years bring me to any fight.

"Yeah, because the best thing to protect the Uniter is to bring her in a huge fight against a highly skilled assassin." Alek scoffed.

"So Jasmine risking her life is better?" I turned on him.

"Chloe, I'm fine. The other two Mai are fine. Everything turned out okay." I grabbed my phone and texted Amy to pick me up.

_I'll be there in five minutes. _Amy texted back.

"Yeah, because most of the time fine means having a bunch of scratches and bruises everywhere." She wasn't fine, and yet there she was, hurt, and still trying to protect me!

"It's better than breaking your foot and having ninja stars thrown at your calf." Alek pointed out bitterly.

"You still shouldn't be risking your life-"

"That's our job." Alek interrupted me. "We need to keep the Uniter safe." My phone buzzed and I saw that Amy had texted me. _I'm here. _And I took that as my sign to leave, but all I needed was for them to leave the room to give me a minute head start.

"Would you mind letting me be by myself for a little bit?" I said bitterly.

"Sure." Jasmine sighed. They didn't look like they wanted to just drop the conversation like that, but they nodded and left to their rooms. I stood up, ignoring the pain in my foot, and started to head to the door, and with that, I took off running.

"Chloe!" I heard Alek call right before the elevator closed before they could enter it, giving me a chance to leave. I ran out of the elevator and straight into Amy's car. In the backseat because Paul had shot gun.

"Should you really be running after yesterday?" Amy asked me.

"No, I'm going to pay for this later. For now just drive before they come out."

"Wait a second, do they not-"

"I'll explain later, just please hurry." I interrupted as I saw Alek and Jasmine leaving the apartment and searching for us. Luckily, Amy got the picture and started to drive. Fast. Less than a minute later, I heard my phone buzz, signaling that I got a text.

_Where are you going? You aren't supposed to leave the apartment! _I could tell that he was angry because he spelled out everything. I started to text him back before my anger got the better of me. I turned off my phone and put it in the compartment.

"Where are we going?" Amy asked.

"Anywhere that they can't find us."


	5. Is Alek even hotter when he's worried?

**My longest chapter yet! Hopefully they will become a little longer later on in the story. Thank you for all the reviews. I'm intending to make this story a little longer than I originally planned. I'm sorry if it is going to take to long. Now that it's summer, I should be updating more often. Please review and Enjoy!**

Once we were settled onto the beach, Amy didn't wait to start her questions. "So spill. Why were you running away from Alek and Jasmine?" I took a deep breath and explained what just happened. "Jasmine is okay, right?" She asked frantically.

"Luckily just scratches and bruises." I said as I lay back on my beach towel. The sun was just still low in the air, but it was a nice temperature out.

"I'm sure Alek was just trying to protect you." Paul pitched in. I almost laughed; Paul has started to develop a small man crush on him. No matter how rude Alek is to him, he always wants to defend him.

"He could've done it better." Amy whacked him.

"Fine fine." Paul paused for a moment before continuing. "Are you sure you're safe? Without Alek and Jasmine, you don't have any protection against Scarface."

"I can take care of myself."

I was slowly falling back asleep when Amy started to talk again. "I hate to ruin your happiness but Alek has already texted me five times since we left."

"Can I see the texts?" Amy handed me her phone.

_WHERE ARE YOU?_

_Why did Chloe turn off her phone? WHERE IS SHE?_

_Amy, I know that you're with Chloe. WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?_

_Where are you? It's not safe for her to be by herself! _

_If I don't have an answer soon, I'll have no choice but to call Valentina. _

The last text was only sent a few minutes ago. "He's threatening to call Valentina."

"You should call him back then." Amy suggested. I shook my head. There was no way I was going to call him. All it would accomplish is a big lecture. "If you don't, not only will Alek and Jasmine get in trouble, I wouldn't put it past Valentina to increase your security."

"Sometimes I hate it when you're right." I groaned and dialed Alek's number that I might've memorized.

"Amy?" Alek answered on the first millisecond of the first ring.

"It's Chloe." Amy was laughing at something Paul just did in the water and left to join him. "I'll let you talk to him alone." She whispered before she left.

"Where are you? Are you okay? Why on earth did you do something as stupid-?"

"I'm fine Petrov." I growled. "Just stop overreacting. I'll be back in a few hours."

"Chloe don't hang-" He started right before I hung up on him. I felt pretty bad about hanging up on him like that, but he deserved it. Before anything else could interrupt, I lie back down and fell asleep.

The next thing I remembered was Amy shaking me awake. "Wake up Chloe. Paul and I are going to grab lunch, we'll be right back." I mumbled some nonsense and fell back asleep as soon as she left.

"Apparently someone didn't get enough sleep last night." Amy laughed. I quickly shot up and saw that Paul and Amy were already back and eating lunch.

"Hi guys. What time is it?"

"Morning Chloe." Paul glanced at his watch. "It's almost one."

"I've been asleep for four hours?"

"Four and a half, but who's counting? You hungry?" Amy tossed me a sandwich without waiting for my answer. Right after she passed me the sandwich, her cell phone rang. "Hello, this is Amy… Alek, I don't think she wants to talk to you… Just leave her alone today… No, I will not give her the phone to talk to you… I'm not going to tell you that just leave her alone… It can't be that bad. She can take care of herself… Goodbye Alek."

"Why can't you just give him a break guys? He's just trying to keep Chloe safe." Paul defended him.

"He's gone way past protecting me. He needs to cool off a little." The sun was high in the sky so the temperature was higher by around twenty degrees. Perfect weather to take a nap. I was about to lay down again to sleep, but Amy pulled me back up.

"Come one kitty, you've been asleep for long enough. Come into the water with us." She begged.

"Wait; do Mai even like being in the water? Cats hate water." Paul asked. My mood instantly brightened.

"I'm not a cat Paul. We may have claws, but we aren't cats." Paul was starting to look embarrassed, so I decided to take pity on him. "Last one in the water is a rotten cat!" I screamed as I started to run. Paul, of course, came last, with Amy going for second. With my Mai powers, I easily beat them to the water.

We only stayed in the water for a little bit before I went back, complaining about my leg.

_I regained consciousness chained up and in a dark room with Scarface staring at me, so could you blame me when I started screaming? "Screaming won't help you Chloe King. There is no one close enough to hear you." I searched my surroundings, trying to find out any piece of information around me. I was in a where house of some sort with a deep body of water to my right. There was very little in the room other than the water._

_I tired to remember what happened before I was knocked out. I had just gotten off of work when Amy texted me, asking if I could go over to her house. It had felt like someone was following me, but I had just assumed that it was Alek following me. How stupid of me to assume that. If I didn't, then I might not have been in this situation. Wait… There was a reason why I thought it was Alek. He walked into the shop when I was working and told me that we had training tonight, but in the mean time, he was going to stay with me. What happened to him?_

"_What did you do to him? I swear, if you have hurt him in anyway-"_

"_Who said anything about harming that annoying British boy? Maybe he just got tired of protecting you." I was furious at him. The only thing I wanted to do is extend my claws and slash them right across his face._

"_As much as I love talking to you, maybe I should get to the point to why you are here. You seem to pose a huge threat to us. Being the Uniter, you're supposed to unite your filthy race with the innocent humans, and that is something we can not and will not allow. The only way to prevent this is getting rid of you. As many times as it takes."_

"_Drowning is probably the most efficient way to kill you. Every time you die and come back to life, you'll try to breathe only to breath in water and slowly die again. "I struggled against the chains that were around me, with no such luck. "Where are your protectors' now? You have no one to come and save you." Scarface laughed. "Once your dead all eight more times, I can go after them." With one more laugh, he pushed me in. _

_The water was freezing and I quickly sank to the bottom of the water. No matter how much I struggled against the chains, they stayed put. I couldn't move, and I certainly couldn't swim to the surface. My lungs screamed for the oxygen that was only a few feet above me. I couldn't take it any more, I gasped for breath, only to breathe in water, and I slowly felt myself dying._

"Chloe?" I heard a voice say while being shaken. My eyes shot open and I instantly looked around my surroundings. I wasn't in the water, but at the beach. "Are you okay?" Amy asked. I took a few deep breaths before answering.

"I'm fine, it was just a nightmare." I lied. It was just like before. The dream felt way to real to mean nothing. I didn't know what they did actually mean. "But I think that my relaxation day is over." The only person that might know what they meant was her. I pulled out my phone, and as it finally fully loaded, I dialed Alek.

"Chloe? What happened? What's wrong? Is everything okay?" Alek quickly asked, almost too fast to understand.

"Nothing's wrong, but I need you or Jasmine to come pick me up."

"Why? Where are you?"

"I'm at the beach with Amy and Paul. I don't want to interrupt their day together just to drive me back to your apartment."

"I still don't-" He stopped mid-sentence. "I'll be there in fifteen. Don't go anywhere." And with that, he hung up.

"I wouldn't have mind minded driving you back to the apartment. Why are you going back? I thought you wanted to have time away from them."

"I need to ask Valentina something, plus, besides, if she gets home and I'm not there, she will go ballistic. And I don't want to interrupt your day with Paul. Go see a movie or go bowling. Have a nice day with each other."

"You are the best, Chloe King!" Amy squealed and hugged me. "We'll go to the new movie that just came out last week! It will be so much fun."

"I hope you have a good time. Are the dads okay with you being gone the whole day?"

"They went to some conference that's like two hours away. They won't be until late tonight. Anyways, they love Paul, as long as they don't find us alone in my room." I could tell that she was teasing me about the whole Bed Boy thing.

"Ha ha, very funny Amy." Exactly fifteen minutes after our phone call, Alek was walking towards us on the beach.

"Do you know how much we've been freaking out? We had no clue where you were, and we didn't know if you were okay." He said angrily once he reached us at the beach.

"I'm fine, so no need to worry. Let's just go." He frowned, but luckily didn't say anything else. "Bye Ames."

He pulled me to my feet and I winced when I put my weight on my leg so he lifted me into his arms. "Sorry about that." He actually sounded sincere. We were walking towards the parking lot before Amy shouted:

"Call me later Chloe King, or I swear that I will go pounding down the apartment door!" Amy loudly shouted behind us. Alek carried me all the way over to a sleek Black Jaguar. I knew that he had a car, maybe even multiple, but I didn't know it was a Jaguar. Apparently the Mai were doing better than what I originally thought. Somehow he managed to open the door with one hand and placed me in the passenger side.

"How long have you had the car?"

"Few months." He said briefly. "Are you going to tell me why you suddenly changed your mind and called me?" Before I could answer, my phone buzzed. Ignoring the ten missed text's and eight missed calls from Alek, I saw that Amy texted me.

_Alek is so hot when he's worrying about you! _Even though I tried to not agree with her, I couldn't help it. "I need to talk to Valentina, and that would probably be better if I'm home before she is."

"Why do you need to talk to her?" I knew that I should fill him in, but I didn't want to worry him when it would most likely be wrong. My dreams had to be just dreams, there was no way they could actually be warnings, right? Just because the first dream was how I lost my first life, doesn't mean the second dream was how I was going to lose my second.

"I just have a few questions for Valentina." That she can hopefully tell me that I am completely wrong.

**I really hope that you don't hate me for changing the original story for mine. I know that in the TV show and book series, Chloe doesn't have dreams about losing her lives, but I thought it would be a nice twist. **


	6. Still being lied to, I just don't know

**Okay, so you probably hate me. I haven't uploaded forever, I know. It's been a little weird at my house. After I finally got back from camp (they took away all electronics so I couldn't upload) my computer was all messed up. It wouldn't let me type, and it was seriously lagging. It took me forever to actually fix it. In return for making you wait so long, I am going to stay up very late and work on the story. My goal is to upload another chapter or two before I'm forced to go camping tomorrow.**

The whole ride home Alek kept trying to get me to tell him why I wanted to talk to her, but I remained quiet.

"Thank Bastet that you're okay!" Jasmine said as soon as Alek carried me through the apartment door. He set me down on the couch. "What were you thinking? Valentina strictly forbade us from leaving this apartment!"

"When is Valentina going to be home?" I asked, purposely ignoring her question.

"Could be in an hour or in a few days. There's no way to know." I saw that the Advil bottle was still on the table next to me, so I grabbed two pills.

For the next four and a half hours, we sat in the living room and watched TV until Valentina came home. I couldn't remember what we watched; my mind kept going back to the dreams. In the corners of my eyes, I saw Alek and Jasmine exchange a few looks with each other, like they were silently deciding what their story was.

I heard the door behind me, and when I turned around, I saw Valentina. "Did anything happen when I was gone?" She asked.

"No," I heard Alek say the response I wasn't expecting. "Nothing exciting happened."

"Perfect," I continue to debate on whether I should talk to Valentina or not. Before I could change my mind, I stood up and walked over to her.

"How's your leg?" Valentina asked me. One of the best things that comes with Mai is probably how we heal insanely fast. My leg should've been bugging me for weeks, not for twenty four hours.

"Almost fully healed," I took a deep breath before continuing. "I need to talk to you."

"Of course," Valentina went to go take a seat, and I followed her. She waited for a few moments before I realized that she was waiting for me to say something.

"Alone." At first I thought she was going to refuse, the whole need to protect the Uniter thing, but she nodded her head.

"Alek, Jasmine, be back in an hour or so." They both paused in the doorway before heading out.

"Are you sure you want us to go?" Alek asked. He continued to stand there, probably wanting to figure out what I wanted to talk about with Valentina.

"We'll be fine." After they left, I turned to Valentina and started to explain. It looked like she wanted to interrupt a few times, but she stayed quiet, allowing me to finish my story.

When I finished explaining, I waited for her to say something, and when she didn't I decided to just straight out ask. "Is it possible that the dreams are a prediction?"

"I've never heard of this before. None of the old legends mention anything about the dreams of the Uniter predicting their deaths." She finally said. I let out a big sigh in relief.

"So it's just a coincidence?"

"I'll do some research, but you don't have anything to worry about." It suddenly felt like I could finally breathe again.

**Alek's POV**

"I want both of you to watch her carefully, especially if she's near the water." Valentina told us. "It would be better if she doesn't even go into the water at all."

"I thought the dream was when Chloe was with Scarface, and he pushed her in the water. Why are we going to worry about every time we're near water?" Jasmine asked beside me. I heard Chloe in the guest bedroom, her regular heartbeat telling me that she was still deep asleep. When we got back to the apartment, Chloe finally seemed relaxed. And as soon as she was asleep, Valentina told us about their talk.

"It's not an exact science." She started to explain. "The dream she's going to have is a warning sent to her by Basset, but it's not going to be one hundred percent accurate. It's just a chance for her to save her lives." It was too hard to hear about how Chloe was going to die.

"The first dream was how her first life was taken, but the second dream is the prediction. Her second life might not be taken away in the same exact way as the dream, but it's going to be by drowning."

"There's no way in hell we can't not tell her this!" I growled. "She could die because we don't tell her."

"Unless you stop it," Valentina continued, ignoring my outburst. "Stop all the predictions Basset gives us." Her phone buzzed. "That's my car, I'm leaving town for a few days. She's under your protection. Follow the old routine." If she's at work, one of us is watching her. If she's at her house, then I'm on her roof. The routine she was such a fan of.

"When she has another dream, you have to figure out what it's about. It may be the best way to keep her alive." She said as she was walking out the door. "Alek, telling her about the dream is not allowed. Be careful." And with that, she was gone.

"Thanks for the warning." Jasmine muttered. I tried to wrap my head about what's going on.

"We need to tell her about this." Right away, Jasmine shook her head.

"I don't think she would react well to this information."

"I don't care! She needs to know. This is way too big of information to keep from her." I stood up and started to walk towards her room.

"Are you sure your thinking about her protection when you want to tell her?" Jasmine asked me, stopping me in my tracks.

"What do you mean? Why else would I want to let her know?" I spun around to face her. Her face gave nothing away to what she was about to say next. She didn't say anything for a moment, as if she was pondering how she was going to say what she about to, but then she shook her head.

"This isn't going to help." Before I could say anything else, I heard Chloe scream. Her scream was muffled. Without another word, I rushed into Chloe's room. I was thankful to see that she wasn't being attacked; it was just another nightmare.

She was shaking, like she was cold. When I tried to focus on her breathing, I realized that she wasn't breathing. I quickly stepped forward, determined to wake her up, when Jasmine grabbed a hold of me.

"We can't wake her up now. She needs to wake up all by herself." With that, she left into her bedroom. I took a seat on the ground, and painfully watched Chloe.

**Was it okay switching the point of views? I wanted Chloe's dreams to mean something, without her knowing they mean something, and this was the only way I could think of. Should I switch the point of view more often?**


	7. It's not a date, we're just friends

**So I think I forgot to say this: I do not own the Nine Lives of Chloe King. (Sadly) Hope you like the chapter. Sorry it's a little short, it's all I could get done. I'm being forced to go camping today. I'll write more as soon as I get home. Please review.**

_The water was freezing and I quickly sank to the bottom of the water. No matter how much I struggled against the chains, they stayed put. I couldn't move, and I certainly couldn't swim to the surface. My lungs screamed for the oxygen that was only a few feet above me. I couldn't take it any more, I gasped for breath, only to breathe in water, and I slowly felt myself dying._

I shot up in bed, gasping for air. Again. This was really starting to get annoying. All I'm asking for is one night of peace, but no. That was apparently impossible. I took a few deep breaths, calming down. "It was just a dream." I muttered to myself. "Just a dream."

"They say talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity." I heard Alek laugh. My eyes shot open, and I saw Alek sitting across the room. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." Alek got up and came to sit on my bed.

"What was the dream about?" My mind unwillingly flashed to my dream. It was the same dream as before, but that didn't stop it from being anymore terrifying. The chilly water still felt so real, to the point where I didn't want to discuss it.

"It's nothing. It's just a silly dream." I lied. It looked like Alek didn't believe me. His perfect dark brown eyes stared at me, waiting for the truth that I wasn't going to give. I forced myself to smile, well to attempt to smile. Alek obviously didn't buy that everything was okay, but he got up anyways.

After I left, I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down enough to get back to sleep. Instead of sleeping, I tossed and turned all night. When I finally heard someone in the kitchen, I gave up.

I gently tried my foot, discovering that it was fully healed. After tearing off the band-aids, I walked into the kitchen to see Alek cooking. The smell of eggs and bacon filled the kitchen.

"Want some?" Alek asked me as I sat down. Before waiting for an answer, he placed a huge stack of eggs and bacon in front of me. Alek placed a fork by the heaping plate of food and sat next to me. I glanced at the kitchen clock and saw that it was only seven in the morning, but Alek was already showered and dressed.

"Can I go back to my place today? I have a ton of homework to do, and a test tomorrow."

"Yeah, it should be fine to go back." Alek said slowly. "But it would be easier to protect you if you stayed here."

"I really just need to get stuff done. I'll make sure to let you know if I go anywhere else." I got up and started to walk out the door when Alek spoke again.

"Wait, you're leaving right now? You didn't even touch your food." My stomach was still in knots, worrying about the dream made it impossible to want to eat anything at all.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I just have a lot to get done." Plus I had a coffee date with Brian in two hours. With everything that has been going on, I need anything that's normal.

"I'll drive you home." He offered. I was tempted to say no. I knew that he wouldn't approve with meeting Brian, but it was a pretty far walk.

"Sure, that would be nice."

An hour and a half later, I saw myself walking to the coffee shop. Amy came over- despite my protests- and picked out an outfit for me to wear. She was acting strange, almost like she didn't want me to go meet Brian. I didn't understand why. She was the one who insisted Kitty Hat stay on the list, but know it seems like she doesn't even like him.

I couldn't ponder this for long. Brian was sitting at our favorite table at the coffee shop next to the place where I worked. "Chloe," He said as standing up. "I ordered for you. I hope that's okay. I also got some of those cookies." I couldn't help the smile that was spreading across my face.

"Hey," We continued to easily chat with each other for over two hours. At first, I felt guilty about not telling Alek that I left the house, knowing that he wouldn't like the idea of me hanging out with my 'human', but I forgot about it the more Brian and I chatted.

Suddenly we got interrupted by the loud ring of my phone. With a glance to my phone, I saw that it was Alek. "I'm sorry; I think I need to take this." I walked a few steps away before answering the phone. "Hey."

"Where are you? I thought you were going to tell us before you went anywhere."

"I just went out for coffee." I defended myself.

"With your human?" He said bitterly.

"His name is Brian, and yes. We decided to meet for some coffee." I thought I heard a low growl on the other side of the phone, but decided that it was my imagination.

"Well, you're going to have to cut your meeting a little short. Valentina wants us to work on your training. We canceled two training sessions, so she wants us to work a little longer today."

"I was going to rest my leg a little bit more. It doesn't-" I started to say before I got interrupted.

"It's not going to be fight training. I'll be there in five." If we weren't going to be fighting, what where we going to do?

**Okay, don't hate me. I wasn't going to add Brian in the story, but it's not really Nine Lives without him. Yeah, he's a stupid character (Chalek all the way) but he did play a big role in the series. I promise that he won't last long. Chloe and Alek will be together, like they should've in the TV series, and book Series. Why does everyone miss that except for the fans? **


	8. Lessons with Alek

**Yay! It's one of my longer chapters. The camping trip sucked, but luckily I had nothing better to do then figure out what I wanted to wite. I tried to add a little bit more Chalek stuff in this. Thank you so much for all the reviews! ****J Please keep reviewing. (I sadly do not own the Nine Lives of Chloe King.)**

"History lessons?" I asked bitterly, four hours later. "That couldn't have waited a few hours?" When Alek said we were going to be training, I didn't think it would be history lessons.

"Hey, it's important to learn the history." He said as I was lying down on the couch. Valentina still hasn't returned from wherever she went last night. Alek and Jasmine didn't know where she went, or when she would be back. Luckily, before she left, she told Alek and Jasmine that it was safe for me to sleep at my own house.

"Yeah, I'm sure that you loved learning it." I scoffed.

"It's not that bad." Alek said right before his phone buzzed. "That was Jasmine. She should be back with the pizzas in around ten." Well that was quick. She had only left around twenty minutes ago. I thought it was going to take longer. "How's your leg?" Alek asked abruptly.

"It's fine. All healed." It was healed, but from walking on it, it started to get a little stiff. It wasn't like it was hurting at all, but I guess a little stiffness is what you get when a crazed assassin decides to thrown ninja stars at your leg.

"It's fully healed?" Alek asked as he moved towards the end of the couch with my feet. He started to roll up the end of my jeans on my left leg until he could see where I was hit. His finger lightly traced the outlining of the very faint scars, trailing up and down, making my heart beat faster and my cheeks seemed to warm just a little. "That healed fast." He murmured.

"Yeah, lucky Mai perk." I said, hoping that he hadn't noticed the faster heartbeat.

"Doesn't hurt at all? No pain or stiffness?" I took a deep breath, trying not to think about how his fingers were still lightly tracing my calf.

"No, it's fine." I lied. Before he could say anything else, Jasmine came through the front door.

"Hey guys. Pizzas here." Oh Thank Basset.

A few hours later, I found myself lying on the floor in my own room with Jasmine and Amy. "Sorry we had to cram a four hour history lesson in today." Jasmine apologized as she looked up from her history homework. We've already been doing homework for an hour, but we've still haven't finished.

"It's fine. I understand why it's important to know. Even if it's boring." I said. Although, I did end up learning a few weird/ cool things that Paul would probably love to know. It wasn't too bad of a training session. It sure beats having sticks and other weapons whacked towards my head.

"Does anybody remember the year Columbus discovered America? Seriously, when are we ever going to need to know this in real life?" Amy asked.

"I think it was fourteen ninety two." Jasmine answered immediately. It was surprising how she managed to always be way to busy with protecting and other Mai stuff, but still manage to do better in school then me.

"Thanks," Amy said as she wrote down the answer. "You made Chloe sit through four hours of history?"

"It wasn't me, it was actually Alek. I didn't even know about it until I walked in on it when they were finishing."

"Alek spent four hours focused on history? That's a shocker." Amy laughed.

"Yeah, it was pretty surprising. No joking, no getting side tracked the whole time. It was awfully boring." Well, at least until the end.

"Alek stayed on topic for four straight hours without joking? Now that is something that I can't believe until I see it." Amy said as she was putting away her history homework, and getting out some different homework.

"It didn't look like he was teaching history when I walked in." Jasmine pointed out. "You were lying down on the couch, not learning."

"Oh, that," I said, feeling my cheeks warm. "He was just checking to see how my foot was healing."

"Speaking of your foot, how is it doing?" Jasmine asked. "Is it good enough for you to get in some fight training tonight? My mom thinks we need to step up training." I nearly groaned out loud. First I had a four hour history lesson, and now I have to train more? Wasn't Sunday was suppose to be my day off?

"There's no escaping this, is there?"

"Nope, Alek already asked about your foot and you said it was fine. He'll be here in an hour." I glanced at the clock and saw that it was already nine at night. I didn't realize that it was already so late. I guess between doing homework with Amy (who can not concentrate for more than ten minutes) and just hanging out, the time has gone by quickly.

Wait, if it was already nine, and Alek was going to show at ten for the training, that means that it's another extreme late night for me. I'll be lucky to get to bed before one in the morning.

"Knock knock." I heard Alek say an hour later as he climbs through the window. "Ready to go Chloe?"

"You know we have school tomorrow."

"Yeah, so?" Alek asked as he sat down on my bed without asking.

"This means that we're going have to get up early tomorrow. We'll be lucky to get five hours of sleep if we train tonight." I was a big believer in always getting eight hours of sleep, but with night training, it didn't happen very often.

"Better a tired Uniter, than a dead one." Yep, no way in getting out of training. As we were climbing out the window, I glanced back and saw that Jasmine wasn't following us.

"You're not coming?" I asked her. I could hear Alek behind me, waiting impatiently. Jasmine shook her head before answering.

"I have a huge pre-calc test tomorrow, I really need to study." When I got up on the roof, I saw that Alek was carrying a huge black duffle bag.

"Weapons?" I groaned.

"Come on, let's get to the clearing." About two minutes of running and we arrived. "Tonight's lesson is on how to use this." He said as he tossed a huge pole towards me. I caught it easily and started to swirl it around on my fingers.

"When am I ever going to battle someone with both of us using sticks rather than I don't know, knifes and claws?" I asked sourly.

"Best be prepared for everything and anything." And before I could react, he swung. It only took him a few minutes before he managed to knock me down.

"You can do better than that." Alek said, holding out a hand to help me out. We kept at it for a long time, and I never managed to knock down Alek. I was lucky if I hit him at all.

About an hour later, after getting knocked down, I just stayed lying down. "Come on, get up." He held out a hand to help me up again but I didn't reach for it.

"Haven't I gotten whacked around enough for one night?"

He leaned down, grabbed me hands and pulled me to my feet while saying, "We still have at least an hour before we call it quits." I groaned but picked up the staff; at least Alek was being careful to not hit hard.

"You know what your doing wrong?" Alek asked. "You're not giving into your instincts. You're thinking too much about your move before you do it."

"And apparently you're still not." He said, not twenty seconds later when I was back on the ground. I got up and prepared to be whacked again. Without explaining what he was doing, he walked over to the bag, grabbed a blindfold, and tied it so I couldn't see anything.

"I couldn't even block your hits when I could see; I don't think I'm going to be able to do any better when I'm blindfolded."

"I'm not going to hit you." Alek said to my left. I quickly spun around, trying to follow his voice. Without any warning at all I felt someone come from behind me and grab me around the neck and stomach.

I didn't think before I rammed my elbow into the person's stomach. The arm around my neck and waist was quickly released. The person gasped in pain and I used the opportunity to grab their arm and flung the person to the ground.

"Nice one." I heard Alek say. I quickly yanked off the blindfold and saw that I had just flipped Alek onto the ground.

"I am so sorry."

"Don't be. You were good. You reacted without thinking. That's exactly what you need to do for the staffs." When we tried again, it took Alek a lot longer before knocking me to the ground.

Around an hour later, when Alek knocked me down (again) I somehow managed to knock him down a second later, causing him to fall right on top of me. He was able to put out his arms at the last minute to catch himself, one on each side of me. "Better." He approved breathlessly.

He didn't move off of me right away. I could feel my heart pounding from the workout, and he could probably too, considering how he was only a few inches away. His face was less than a foot away, I could see the beads of sweat on his forehead. It looked like he was in deep thought about something, but he shook his head and started to get up. "You still have a lot to do, but I think we're okay for the night." Alek handed me a water bottle when we sat down on the bench.

After taking a long gulp of water, I heard my cell phone buzz. Alek leaned into the bag for the phone and passed it to me, but not before he saw the screen.

"The human texts you at twelve thirty at night?" He asked bitterly.

"His name is Brian." _You're probably not up right now. Is it possible to reschedule our reschedule? My dad is hosing business guests tomorrow night, and apparently I need to be there. _

"When are you going to come to your senses and stop this ridiculous flirtation with that human?"

"Not that it's truly any of your business, but we're just friends." Angrily he got up and hastily packed the staffs back into the bag.

"Ready to leave?" He asked, but didn't bother to wait for an answer. I had to sprint to catch up with him, and then we were in front of my house.

"Please tell me I'm going to be alone tonight." I asked him when we got back into the room. Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was already one thirty in the morning. I was so not getting enough sleep tonight. Luckily, my mother had to do something for work, and wasn't going to be home for a few days, meaning I didn't have to worry about her hearing my nightmares.

Alek and Jasmine on the other hand, would be there to hear me if I started screaming in the middle of the night. And considering how I've already managed to wake Alek up, I really didn't want to bother him again.

"I'm staying the whole night." That's just horrible.

"It's really not necessary for-"

"I'm staying." Something about his angry tone made it clear that he wasn't going anywhere, despite my protests.

"Fine," I muttered. "I clearly have no say in this." I stomped into my room and went to bed hoping that I wasn't going to have a nightmare, but of course I woke up screaming.

**Can anyone guess what episode inspired the last bit for the training? **


	9. Avoiding sleep

**I'm back! Finally. Road trips suck. I'm sorry this took so long, but I hope it's worth it. Please review and give ideas to inspire what happens next.**

_The water was freezing and I quickly sank to the bottom of the water. No matter how much I struggled against the chains, they stayed put. I couldn't move, and I certainly couldn't swim to the surface. My lungs screamed for the oxygen that was only a few feet above me. I couldn't take it any more, I gasped for breath, only to breathe in water, and I slowly felt myself dying._

When I woke up, I was screaming. I quickly shut up and tried to focus on my breathing. In two three four, out two three four. In two three four, out two three four. "Are you okay?" My eyes shot open and I glanced around the room to see that Alek was sitting at the end of my bed. I really should've noticed that sooner.

"It's fine. I mean, I'm fine." I hastily corrected myself.

"You were screaming again." His voice was full of concern. "What was the nightmare about?" Alek asked as he moved closer.

"It's nothing, just a silly dream." I lied, not wanting to recall the dream that I've had multiple times now. Each time was the same, nothing ever changed, including my thoughts. It was starting to creep me out, despite the fact that Valentina said it was nothing.

I glanced at the clock and saw that it was only four in the morning, but started to get up anyways. Alek didn't say anything until I flipped on my light. "You're not going back to bed, are you?"

"I have a science test today that I should study for, considering how someone prevented me from studying last night." But that wasn't the reason why I wasn't going back to bed. I was worried that if I went back to bed, I'll have the nightmare again.

"You've only had two hours of sleep, are you sure you don't want to try to get another two or three hours?" Alek asked worriedly.

"I'm sure." I said as I let out a big yawn. Ignoring the disapproval look from Alek, I took out my science stuff.

"Only getting two hours of sleep is bad for you." Alek lectured.

"Says the guy who goes the whole entire night on my roof, not getting any sleep." I said angrily. Who was he to lecture me?

"Chloe," He started as he walked closer to the desk that I was using.

"I just need to study otherwise I'm going to fail the test today." I looked down at the science papers to try to make it convincing.

"Our test isn't until Tuesday." Oh. I forgot that Alek was in Chemistry with me. How did I manage to mess up the dates like that?

"I still shouldn't leave the studying to the last minute. You know how hard-"

"Chloe," He interrupted. "What was the dream?" He looked me straight in the eye when he asked that.

"It's just a stupid dream. Now just let me study please." Instead of going back on to the roof like I wanted, he went and sat into the chair to watch me study.

The entire time I studied, Alek watched. I asked him if he wanted to join me in studying, I wasn't the only person who had to take the test tomorrow, but he shook his head saying that he didn't need to. When I quizzed him on the material, I figured out that he really didn't need to study; he already knew everything for the test. It's completely unfair how Jasmine and Alek always remembered everything without having to study. He tried to convince me to go back to bed multiple times, but I didn't.

After six thirty rolled around, I expected mom to come knocking on my door, telling me that I was going to be late, but she never did. Then I remembered that she was out of town for the next few days for business. I texted Amy to pick me up a little earlier so we could get coffee, after the amount of sleep I got, there was no way I could make it through the day without it.

"You're just going for coffee, then straight for school, right?" Alek asked. I was pretty sure that if he didn't need to get ready for school, he would've stayed with me.

"Yes, just coffee and school." I assured him even though I was getting frustrated. Before he could say anything else, Jasmine popped through the window. "You know you can go through the front door when my moms not home."

"Sorry, it's habit." Jasmine apologized. "You can take off now Alek. I got it."

"See you both at school." Alek said before he disappeared. My cell phone beeped from a text from Amy, saying that she was outside waiting.

"Feel like getting coffee?" When we arrived at school, we still had ten minutes before the first warning bell so I decided to text Brian back. _No problem, how's your schedule tomorrow?_

Less than a minute later, I got a reply. _Sounds good. Tomorrow at the coffee place? _"Is that kitty hat?" Amy asked with a large smile.

"Yeah, we're just trying to reschedule." I said trying to hide my smile.

"So you're still going to see your human?" A voice asked behind me, startling me. I jumped around to see Alek.

"You shouldn't sneak behind people like that." I said to avoid the question.

"I wouldn't have sneaked up on you if you were paying attention to your surroundings."

"He has a point Chloe. You need to pay attention to your surroundings, otherwise, the Order can easily sneak up on you."

"I have another training session tonight, don't I?"

"Yep," Alek said happily. "We still need to work on you staff skills. I'll be on your rooftop at eleven."

"Fine," I said bitterly, knowing that I was going to lose the argument. "But I get tomorrow night off."

"You know that my mom wants us to step up your training," Jasmine frowned. "But if you increase your training tonight, then I guess it's okay to take one night off."

"Without a bodyguard following me around."

"No," Alek came into the conversation. "Going anywhere without a bodyguard is an incredible stupid idea. The order isn't going to take the night off just because you are."

"He's right. Alek needs to make sure you're safe tomorrow night."

"Why Alek, can't you go?" I'm pretty sure Alek won't like watching me with my human.

"I have my date tomorrow night as well." Jasmine said. I gave up, knowing that no matter what, Alek wasn't going to leave me alone.

"If I was an assassin, you'd be dead right now." I quickly spun around, almost falling off my bed, and saw Alek. I glanced at the clock to make sure I wasn't running late for the training, and saw that it was only eight, so why was Alek here?

"Ever heard of knocking? What are you even doing here?"

"Training."

"We aren't training until eleven, it's only eight."

"We need to train longer to make up for you ditching tomorrow."

"Alek, I have a lot of work to get done. And I'm still exhausted from yesterday's workout."

"No, your tired because you only got two hours of sleep." I heard him mutter softly. "Come on lazy, let's go." He said louder. Five minutes later, I found myself in the clearing.

Whatever improvement I made the previous night completely vanished during the next training session. After only thirty minutes of knocking me around with the poles, Alek paused the training session.

"I think you've gotten worse." He said bluntly, not bothering on trying to sugar coat it for me.

"I'm sorry. I'm just a little tired." Alek thought for a minute until he spoke again.

"Since it's clear that your not going to be able to practice tonight, come on." He said as he threw his stick back in his bag. "Let's just drop this off in your room, then we can go."

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see,"

**So, I have a few ideas on where Alek takes her on this beautiful evening, but I want to hear what you want to happen first. Please review, telling me where you want Alek to take her next. SPOILER- Oh, and Chalek's fist kiss should be coming up either next chapter or the one after.**


	10. Is it kindof sort of maybe a date?

**I'm horrible. I know. I'm soooo sorry. It's just a lot of stuff is going. Oh, I want to send a shout out to **panaricanchick** for giving me the golden gate bridge part of the chapter. Thanks for reading. (I promise I will update more often. At least once a week.)**

Alek didn't tell me where we were going; instead we got into his car and started driving. He stopped the car when we reached the pier and we both got out of the car.

"Alek, this is so beautiful." I said as I saw the Golden Gate Bridge in the moonlight.

"It really is." Before he could say anything else, my cell phone rang. I looked at the screen and saw Brian's name, and then quickly put it down. I didn't want to talk to him and ruin the perfect moment. "You're not going to answer it?"

"Nope." Alek quickly turned away, but not before I could see the smile stretched on his face. "Come on, it's a beautiful night. Let's take a walk."

"Sounds good,"

"I'll race you." Alek said not five minutes later. I followed his gaze at the row of buildings in front of us.

"You're so on." I laughed. "First one to the pizza shop?"

"On your mark, get set," And with that he took off.

"Cheater!" I yelled when I took after him. We ran for only a minute until we reached the fire stairs on the side of the building. He was a good ten feet in front of me by the time we got to the top of the building. Alek turned around and stuck his tongue out at me, making him lose three feet of a head start.

We jumped across a few gaps of the buildings before; I looked ahead of us and saw a huge cap between the two buildings. A lot bigger than the ones before, I was about to stop before the gap, but the idea of Alek's smirk made me fly higher than I ever did before.

By the time we got to the pizza place, Alek was only a stride of ahead of me. "Loser," He teased with a big smile. I whacked him playfully before my stomach lowly growled. "Want to grab some pizza?"

"Sounds good," We jumped down from the building and went around the front.

"After you," Alek said, holding the door open for me. I saw Alek glance around the pizza place. Knowing that he was in protector mode, I went to sit at a booth. He came and sat on the other side of the booth while still scoping out the place.

"What can I get started for you?" A waitress said. Alek snapped out of protector mode and looked at me.

"Any preference?" I shook my head. "We'll get large meat lovers pizza with two Pepsi's."

"It should be around fifteen minutes."

"So," Alek said as he turned back towards me.

"So," Alek and I have never actually had small talk with each other before. A few things here and there, but never for as long as this.

"Are you actually going out with your human tomorrow?" I thought that I heard a low growl from Alek, but decided that I was just hearing things.

"It is not a date," I sighed. "We're just friends."

"Here's your Pepsi's," The waitress said as she laid down the drinks before leaving.

"How's basketball doing?" I asked, trying to steer the subject away from Brian.

"The coach is out for a few days with some personal reasons no one knows, so we're stuck with the assistant coach Mr. Jones."

"I know him; he was my P.E. coach when I was a freshman." I refrained from saying anything else, incase Alek actually thought he was a good coach.

"Wasn't he horrible?" I laughed. I didn't think that he would hate him. "All the yelling almost takes the fun out of basketball."

"When is your next game?"

"Our next game is Wednesday. We're playing against the biggest competitor. They're the only team, other than us, that hasn't lost yet." I nodded my head like I knew what team he was talking about. "You should come to the game."

"I don't know anything about basketball."

"That's fine. If you sit close to team's bench, when I'm not playing, I'll fill you in."

"That sounds amazing." I said with a big smile.

"Here's the pizza. Can I get you anything else?" The waitress went off to the other table when Alek shook his head.

We sat in silence eating the pizza with Alek fidgeting. Finally, I couldn't take it. "Okay, spit it out. What is it?"

"What's what?"

"Something's bothering you. Just say whatever you need to say."

"What was the nightmare about?"

"It's nothing."

"Yeah, I'll believe that." He scoffed. I hesitated before speaking. Trying to decide if I wanted to tell him or not.

"I'm tied up by Scarface in a warehouse near a pool of water. Nobody is near us. No one is there to help. He taunts me then pushes me into water. I quickly sink in the water and I can't do anything about it. I slowly feel myself drowning." When I finished explaining, I'm looking down at my plate. "It just feels so real that it's hard to forget like any other nightmare."

"I won't let that happen. " He said confidently, but still somehow comforting. "I'll always be there to protect you, but I could ask Valentina to put some more Mai on your protection duty."

"I don't even want you and Jasmine to protect me. Besides, they're only nightmares. They don't mean anything."

"Come on, let's get out of here." I looked up and saw him place some bills on the table.

"Are you staying on the room tonight?" I asked Alek when we arrived back to my room. I glanced at the clock by my bed and saw that it was only eleven meaning that I might actually get some sleep tonight.

"Jasmine will be here in a little bit. I need to take care of a few things tonight. I'll see you tomorrow at school." He gave me a quick smile then started to leave out the window.

"Alek," He turned around. "Thanks for tonight. It really helped."

"Anytime," And with a smile, he left.

**Alek POV**

"Alek, is everything okay with Chloe?" Valentina asked.

"She's not hurt." I told her. "But I want more Mai to be added to her security detail." Man, she was going to kill me if she ever found out about this. She hated when Jasmine and I were protecting her, let alone anybody else.

"Why? Chloe didn't get attacked or anything, did she?"

"No, she's just worried. Chloe won't admit it, but the nightmares she's having are freaking her out and since the nightmares are actually true, I think it would be better if she had more protection. Just in case,"

"I'll do what I can. I can get someone down in a week or so."

"I guess that will work. Thanks Valentina." I just hope that the new person would get here soon enough.


	11. The coffee date goes horribly wrong

**Heya. Thank you all for who reviewed, they really make my day. I hope you like the chapter. (Oh, I don't own the Nine Lives for Chloe King.)**

**Chloe's POV**

"Chloe, it's time to wake up." I heard a British voice say while shaking me.

"Go away," I mumbled into my pillow. I heard a chuckle and a second later, my pillow was quickly pulled out from under my head. After a growl, I glanced up and saw Alek holding my pillow.

"Oh, good, you're up." Alek laughed. "It's time to get ready for school."

"Give me fifteen minutes. "

"I'll go out and wait in the car then." He threw the pillow at me and started to leave out the window before he turned around, "Oh, and I have breakfast in the car." I quickly threw on some jeans, a long sleeved blue shirt, and a hoodie. After quickly combing my hair and brushing my teeth, I rushed out the door.

It was only after I was walking out the door that I realized that I didn't have another nightmare last night. I had actually gotten almost six and a half hours of sleep.

"I thought Jasmine was on protector duty." I said when he handed me a bagel with cream cheese.

"We traded off so she could go get ready for school." He explained.

"You know, I am perfectly capable of getting to school by myself." I have been doing it for years, not that anyone seemed to realize that. Or cared about that.

"I feel better knowing that you're not alone."

"It's only like a ten minute walk. Or Amy could pick me up."

"Chloe, I know you don't like protection duty, but there is no way we are leaving you alone until we deal with Scarface."

"So, there's no chance of being protector free tonight?" I tried hopefully, with no success.

"No," He quickly responded in a no nonsense voice.

"Oh, come on. It's not like you even like Brian. It's obvious that you don't want to watch us, so just take the night off. Catch up on some sleep or something."

"Are you forgetting about what happened just a few days ago? The last time I left you alone, you almost died." He took his eyes off the road and looked at me. I thought saw his eyes full of different emotions; guilt, concern, anger, but in a flash, the emotions were gone. Maybe I just imagined it. I tried not to think about how it disappointed me that I imagined it. Why should I care about that?

"Fine," I gave in as we pulled into the student parking lot. "I go to work right after school, and then I'm going over to the coffee place afterwards." It would take a lot less time just to tell him and get it over with. Besides, it's not like I'm actually going to win this argument.

"I'll drive you to work. Now are you ready to go take our science test?" I could already tell that today was going to be a long day.

"You're going on a date with Kitty Hat tonight?" Amy asked when we were walking out of our last class of the day. The statement seemed to be lacking perkiness and excitement, very unusual for Amy.

"We're going to have coffee, but it's not a date. We're just friends." Before she could respond, my cell phone buzzed. _Meet you in the front of the school? _

"Who's that?"

"Alek, I completely forgot that he's driving me to work." And then staying with me until school tomorrow. Or whenever Jasmine takes over. When do they ever get any sleep?

"I could drive you to work." Amy offered.

"I wish I could say yes to that. He's driving me, not to be nice, but to keep an eye out for me."

"Have a good time. I want details in the morning Chloe King!"

"Later," I called back with a smile when I opened the car door.

"Hey Chloe," Alek said. I waited for something Aleky, like a smirk, or him asking why I bothered with the human, but he didn't. Instead he just seemed happy. "Have a good day?"

"The test was a little hard, but it the rest was okay. How was your day?"

"It was pretty good. How long are you going to work?" He asked when we pulled up into the parking spot.

"I work until six."

"Okay, I'll just be at the coffee shop. Catch you later."

Work passed along slower than I imagined was possible. Luckily Jasmine came in for a little bit to find an outfit for her date tonight. Sadly, she didn't stay that long. Although I did help her find a cute dress and jacket for the date.

I saw Alek with a large cup of coffee sitting in the shop the entire time I was working. How he could sit and do nothing for that long was beyond me. Though, I guess he was doing something. Protecting. His mind was probably occupied with a whole bunch of protector stuff like observing everything, looking out for danger, ECT. Finally it was over and I got to head over to the coffee place to meet Brian.

"Hey Chloe," Brian said as I walked over to the table. A hot cup of coffee and cookies sat in front of him.

"Cold ears?" I asked when I saw that he was wearing the kitty hat.

"Still ironic and lame?"

"Maybe a just little, "I laughed.

"So, how's school?" It seemed like the conversation never stopped between us for the hour before my phone rang. I looked at the screen and saw that it was Mom.

"I'm sorry, I should take this. I'll be right back." I told Brian and then walked away from the table. "Hey, what's up?"

"Chloe," It wasn't my mother that answered me. It was Scarface.

"Stay away from her." I tried to put force behind the words, but I couldn't.

"No one in your life will ever be safe."

"What do you want?" I asked desperately. Nothing could happen to her.

"To see you, alone."

"Just tell me where.

**Do you guys want me to write more about Brian? I usual don't because my biased opinion doesn't even want him into the story, but I will if you guys want the coffee dates to be longer. Oh, and the phone conversation is from episode 3 of TNLOCK if you guys recognized it. I just thought that it fit very nicely.**

**Spoiler- Chalek will be coming soon.**

**Please review.**


	12. Unconscious Chloe

**I am so sorry. First I got grounded, then our internet got all messed up, and then I missed a day at school so I had to make up a billion things. Hope you like the chapter. Please review **

I quickly went back to the table. "Hey, is everything okay?" Brian asked me. I remembered that Alek was watching us and tried to force a smile on my face before I answered.

"Yeah, it was just Amy." I lowered my voice to make sure the Alek didn't hear. "But I do need to go. I'm so sorry." If I went through the back door, maybe I could lose Alek long enough to go after Scarface. I heard Brian call my name and hoped that Alek didn't hear, but continued moving. Once outside, I ran.

It took around ten minutes to reach the building Scarface told me to meet him at. It was a broken down warehouse that probably no one has been in for years. He probably picked the setting because of that; didn't want to get interrupted.

I paused in front of one of the broken window, thinking that maybe I should call Alek and wait for him. It was almost suicidal to continue on without back up. I knew I couldn't take him by myself, but if I brought someone with me, he might take it out on my mother.

I jumped through the window and stood up. It was dark, probably too dark for any human eye, but I could see. I quickly looked around, and didn't see anything suspicious. Then, I felt something hard hit my head, and blacked out.

The first thing I felt when I regained consciousness was the enormous amount of pain in my head. The next thing was the chains. Chains were tightly tied up my entire body.

"Chloe," When I moved my head to look for the voice, the searing pain increased. I was able to look around a little though. Boxes covered the entire warehouse except on my left, there was a pool. One shove and I'd be dead.

I thought about the nightmare that has been haunting my dreams for a few days now. What was happening right now was so similar to the dream, that I almost lost it right there. I thought about what Valentina said, and on the differences of what was going on now from the dream, and reasoned that it wasn't actually the dream.

"Where's my mother?" I demanded. I can't believe how stupid I was to go in without backup. After some attempts to struggle out of the chains, I realized that it was pointless.

"Who said that I harmed her?" It was all a trick to get me here. My mother was never in any danger. A part of me was relieved that she was okay, another part just wanted to give him a matching scar to the one he had. "Now to the fun part," He grinned sadistically

"Every time you come back to life, you'll try to breathe only to breath in more water and slowly die again. It's probably the most efficient way for you to die over and over." He looked so confident, that I lost hope right there, I wasn't going to make it out alive. "Where are the protectors now? " Without another word, he pushed me in.

I wanted to scream as soon as I hit the water, the chill instantly going to my bone. I quickly sank to the bottom, and no matter how much I struggled against the chains, they stayed put. It was hopeless trying to swim, but I didn't know what else I could try. I couldn't move out of the chains, screaming wouldn't help, and whatever head injury I acquired was really hurting.

Finally, I couldn't take it; I had to breathe. I gasped for breath, only to breathe in water. And not to long after that, I felt myself starting to black out.

**Alek POV**

I was watching Chloe on the roof when I saw her head off to the back. At first, I thought she was going to the bathroom or something, but then Brian paid the bill and was starting to leave. After jumping off the roof, I managed to catch up with him and when he was exiting the door.

"Brian," I stopped him.

"Alek," He responded coolly. "What do you want?"

"Where's Chloe?" I looked around everywhere and didn't see her.

"She got a call around five minutes ago, and suddenly took of like she was in trouble." She would call me if she was doing something dangerous, right? I dismissed that idea in a second. Of course she wouldn't.

The dream was in a warehouse, so would it still be in a warehouse for life? I glanced around to ask Brian a question, but he was already gone. When I dialed Chloe, it went straight to voicemail. "Damn it." Then I dialed Jasmine and luckily she answered on the first ring.

"Alek, what's up?" She sounded happy, and I hated to ruin it for her, but if Chloe was really gone, I didn't have a choice.

"Where are you?" I demanded.

"Derek and I are driving to try to meet Chloe at the coffee place. What's wrong? Is Chloe okay?" Her voice had immediately changed.

"I don't know where she is. According to Brian she took off quickly after a phone call."

"How long ago?"

"A little over five minutes ago. We need to find her. What if the dream-"

"Where are you?" She interrupted.

"I'm at the coffee place."

"We'll be there in a minute." I could hear the acceleration of the car over the phone. Less than a minute later, I saw the car rushing by.

"Go to the abandoned warehouse." I told them as I climbed into the back. Derek didn't wait for the door to close before he stepped on the gas.

"Tell us what happened." Jasmine turned around to look at me.

"She was in the coffee place with Brian, and then she left. I thought she was just going to the bathroom, but then a few minutes later, Brian paid and started to leave. I caught up to him and he said that she left after she got a phone call." I tired to explain quickly.

"Could she be with Amy?" Jasmine asked hopefully.

"Brian said that she looked trouble. And when I tried calling her, it went straight to voicemail."

"Maybe something was wrong with Amy, and she turned off her phone so she didn't get interrupted?" Jasmine didn't look like she believed that.

"And snuck out the back door of the coffee place? The one place I couldn't see her exit from?" I had to admit that was kind of smart. "Something's wrong, and my guess is that Scarface called her with a threat of some sort. We both know her well enough to know that she would go anywhere in a second if she thought Amy or Paul were in trouble. It's happened before."

"What's the plan?" Derek spoke for the first time. When we didn't answer, he clarified. "What are we going to do when we get there?" I realized that Jasmine and I never talked about what we were doing, it was always the same. Jasmine would take care of the threat, and I would go help Chloe.

"We'll deal with Scarface, and Alek will go get Chloe out of there." Jasmine answered him right as he pulled to a stop. "Alek, go through the window over there," She pointed over to a window near the side of the warehouse. "We'll go through the one on the opposite side. On my signal, we'll go in."

We all got out of the car and ran quietly to the windows. When I glanced at the broken window, I saw a piece of ripped off blue fabric. It was Chloe's.

I looked over to Jasmine, she held up three fingers, and slowly put them down to one, then we charged.

Scarface was standing by a pool of water in the warehouse, grinning. As soon as we came in, his grinned faded and he pulled out a knife. Jasmine and Derek rushed towards him. I ran over to the pool and saw Chloe chained up at the bottom, unconscious.

**Review J Have a good Thanksgiving.**


	13. Almost drowning Sucks

**Hope you enjoy the chapter. **

**Alek POV**

The pool was shallow enough that I was able to reach in and grab her by the chains. I carefully laid her down on the ground and felt for a pulse. It was barely there, she wasn't breathing and her head was bleeding a lot. I tilted her head to the side and tried to figure out what to do. "Chloe, come on now," How long was she in the water? "Breathe, please breathe." I was begging now.

Suddenly, she was coughing up water and vomiting. I let out a sigh of relief. Chloe was breathing. She tried to sit up afterwards, but I forced her back down. "Don't move," I ordered her.

"Alek?" She croaked out and then flinched. Her voice was all rough and cracked. It was painful just to listen to.

"It's me." I responded. "Everything's going to be okay." I glanced towards where Jasmine and Derek were fighting, and saw that they were walking towards us; Scarface was gone.

"Is she okay?" Derek asked, still looking around for danger.

"I'm fine." Chloe choked out and then winced again.

"We're going to go get the car." And then they were gone, leaving only me and Chloe in the warehouse. Chloe wasn't looking any better. She was shivering, and the head injury wasn't looking too good. I took off my jacket and started to wrap it around her.

"Hey Chloe," I said softly, and hopefully comforting. "We're going to take you back to the apartment." I picked her up bridal shower and she wrapped her arms around my neck. "Chloe, you need to stay awake." We didn't think that she did have a concussion, but we didn't really want to take that risk.

"Okay," She whispered softly, but the pain was still clear. I tried to come up with something to say to ease the tension, but couldn't. The car ride to the apartment was silent.

"I need to make some calls," Jasmine said when we got home. I laid Chloe down on the couch and sat at the end of it. "Derek, would you mind calling a healer when I call Valentina?" She asked.

"Sure," They both headed outside to make the calls; probably for some alone time considering how their date was interrupted again.

"I don't need a healer." She whispered so softly that I could barely hear her.

"Humor me then," I grimaced at the thought of what I needed to ask. "Chloe, when you were in the pool, you didn't," An awkward pause, "You didn't-" I couldn't bring the words out of my mouth.

"I didn't lose a life." She answered my thoughts quietly and I let out a big sigh in relief. She still had eight lives, that was good, but it was still way too close. What if something had happened?

**Chloe POV**

"I didn't lose a life," I said quietly and his face brightened a little, but he still looked mad.

"What the hell where you thinking? How many times is it going to take before you realize that going off by yourself is idiotic?!" His voice was furious.

"I thought he was going after my mother, I had to go!"

"You could've told me before heading off. If I went with you-"

"You can't always fight my battles for me," I interrupted, causing him to frown.

"And the more often you run off without protection, the more likely you die." He said very bluntly.

"You're right." His face became confused, obviously not expecting me to agree with him on anything. "It was stupid for me to go out by myself and putting myself in danger." Alek still didn't say anything, so I continued. "Thank you for saving my life."

"Hopefully I don't have to again, but you're welcome." The door swung open and three people entered; Jasmine, Derek, and an unknown male.

"Uniter," The male bowed his head slightly as he approached but stopped a good few feet away. It was a little strange seeing a grown adult address me so formally.

"Just Chloe," I corrected. My voice still hurt, and it sounded rough to even my own ears.

""My name is Dominique. I'm a healer." He gestured to my injury. "May I?" When I nodded my head, he advanced closer. After a few minutes of examining, he spoke. "You'll be just fine; you don't even have a concussion. I'll just bandage it up and you'll be good to go."

"Thank you for coming," Alek said politely.

"Anything for the Uniter and her protectors," A cool wet cloth touch my head and it started to sting a little bit. "Just make sure to change the bandage and keep the wound clean to prevent infection."

"Thanks," I said quietly.

"Anytime," He smiled. "Drink a lot of tea to help out your throat." And with a bow of his head, he left.

"Chloe," Alek began. "I think it would be better if you stayed here for tonight. You can sleep in the guest bedroom if you want."

"Yeah, and I can run over to your house with Derek to get you a few things that you need." Jasmine chipped in, probably anxious to get to some alone time with Derek. "We'll be back in a little bit." And then they took off, leaving Alek and I alone.

"Are you still coming to my game tomorrow?" Alek asked with excitement.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." His face lit up a little before he went into the kitchen.

"Do you want some tea?"

"Actually, I kind of just want to take a shower and head off to bed."

"You don't have any clothes to change into." I looked down and saw that I was still in my soaked clothes from before. No wonder why I was so cold. "I'll be right back." Alek disappeared into his room and came out holding some clothes in his hands. "The clothes are from a few years ago, so they should be too big." He said when he was handing them to me.

"Thanks," Normally I would've just waited for Jasmine to come back with my stuff, but I was too tired to care at this point.

"There's a clean towel underneath the sink in the guest bathroom that you can use."

After the shower, I looked into the mirror and saw the head wound. It really wasn't that bad, but I would probably have to wear a hat to cover it up. My throat stung a lot as well, but other than those two things, I was lucky that nothing else had happened. If Alek and Jasmine hadn't shown up, I would be dead right now.

The thought gave me a shudder. _Dead. _All eight of my lives could've been gone in just a few more minutes while I was trapped underwater. I tried to focus on something else.

The clothes Alek had given me to wear were too big for me, but they were also very comfortable. He had given me a pair of his sweatpants that dragged on the floor, and one of his t-shirts. They were soft against my skin, and warm. Also, they smelled just like Alek, which comforted me quite a bit.

After quickly brushing my teeth, I went and lay on the bed, too tired to do anything else. Within a few moments, I was asleep.

Please read the bold.

**Hey readers, I hope you liked the chapter. I'm thing about possibly adding the first Chalek kiss after Alek's basketball game, but I'm also torn about wanting it to be after he saves her from something. I was going to make it when they were home alone during this chapter, but then I remembered that she puked and that's a little less romantic. Please review with your opinions ****J **


	14. Do you like him?

**Thank you for your reviews. So after reading them, I decided to stick with the Chalek kiss after the game. I think it would be romantic to have it after he saves her, but one of the reviews pointed out that I was kind of making Chloe into a damsel in distress which is bad. Very bad. Chloe is the Uniter; she can take care of herself. **

**Happy Holidays everyone!**

"Time to wake up Chloe," I heard a voice try to wake me up. I groaned and just turned the other way.

"No,"

"You're going to be late."

"Five more minutes." I heard a sigh before suddenly I was soaked with cold water. "AHHHHHHH." I sat up quickly and saw Alek smiling and holding a now empty cup. "ALEK!" I shrieked.

"You are one of the worst morning people that I have ever met. How do you ever manage to actually get up in the morning by yourself?"

"Well, before a few months ago, I didn't have to deal with assassins in the middle of the night, so I was actually able to get some sleep." I pointed out but soon regretted it. The happy, relaxed smile on his face disappeared quickly and was now a frown.

"You should hurry," He pointed to some clothes at the end of the bed. "Jasmine got these from your house last night. I can drive you to school when you're ready." I quickly got dressed and brushed my hair before heading into the kitchen where I saw Alek sitting at the table looking at his phone.

"I made you breakfast." He said without looking up. Wow, he must be in a really important conversation if he has that look on his face. I saw some pancakes and a cup of orange juice on the counter.

"Thanks, it tastes amazing." I said after a huge bite. "Where's Jasmine?"

"She already left. She decided to take her own car today because she's going somewhere with Derek after school."

"Oh, that's nice. They deserve to have an uninterrupted date after all the times I've ruined it for them." His head shot up and he looked at me.

"You didn't ruin anything Chloe."

"Every time that they've scheduled something, I've done something that ends up in them abandoning their date. I would qualify that as ruining it."

"You just have really bad luck. Now, we really should get going if we don't want to be late. Can you take the pancakes to go?"

"Yeah, just let me go get my bag and we can go in just a second." When I was walking back from the guest room, I saw that Alek was texting on his phone again.

"Crap," I heard him mummer.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," He said quickly, but it was clear he was lying. "We should go."

"Sure," I looked at his face and saw that he was worrying about something. "You sure everything's okay?"

"Of course," He flashed a smile before rolling his eyes. "Now, we seriously need to go otherwise we're going to be late for class."

Once we were in the car, I allowed myself to think about what happened last night. Thinking I could've drowned was disturbing, but something seemed off. For the past few days, I've been dreaming about being forced under freezing cold water, and slowly dying and then last night I did almost drown. Valentina told me that I had nothing to worry about, but what if she was wrong? I mean, that's possible right? Sure, she knows a lot about Mai history, but it's impossible for anyone to know everything. Maybe the dreams were a prediction of some sort.

But I only had that one dream; no other dreams could point to a possibility of my death. If they were a prediction, then they there would have to be nine of them, right? One for each of my lives. And since there wasn't, maybe it's just a freaky coincidence.

"Chloe?" I turned to look at Alek. "We're here." After a glance outside I saw that we were already at school. "Are you okay? You zoned out for like ten minutes."

"Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about last night with Scarface. "

"Don't," His eyes were full of concern when he reached over and held my hand.

"Don't what?" I asked confusedly.

"Don't think about Scarface and how you almost died. It won't happen again, I promise." There was a sudden flash of anger in his eyes but then it disappeared just as quickly as it came.

"I know that it won't. I trust you." The warning bell rang loudly. "We're late."

"Before you go, you might want to put on this." He said when handing me a hat. "It's Jasmines, but she probably won't mind you wearing it." Oh right, the bandage on my head. I thanked him while opening up my door.

"Are you still going to my game tonight?" We stopped by my first class room.

"Wouldn't miss it."

"Good, see you then."

The day had past by quickly without anything happening. I was at work when Alek came by to pick me up.

"You ready for the game?" I asked when he came over.

"Yep, there is no chance of the other team winning." He said with a big grin on his face. "Are you almost ready to go?" I looked over at Lana and she rolled her eyes.

"You still have twenty minutes left in your shift." She paused before continuing. "But if you do inventory tomorrow I'll cover for you." Ugh, inventory. But if we didn't leave now, then Alek might be late for his game.

"Fine." I agreed. "I'll see you tomorrow." When we made it into Alek's jaguar, my phone buzzed.

_Hey, Paul and I were going to go to the game. Want us to pick you up?_

I guess I forgot to tell her that I was going with Alek.

_I'm already going with Alek._

_Is it a date?_

Was it a date? He never really clarified if it was a date, or just friends going somewhere. "Is that Amy?" Alek suddenly asked.

"Yeah, she's going to the game with Paul and wanted to know if I wanted to join them."

"I'm surprised you didn't tell her already. Don't you two tell each other everything?" Alek asked with a laugh.

"We normally do," I agreed.

_I don't know. _I texted back honestly. Should I ask Alek if it was a date or not? Would that be really tacky?

_Do you want it to be a date? _I felt my cheeks start to warm up a little bit and hoped that Alek didn't notice.

_Yes. _I replied but regretted it less than a minute later when she texted back.

_Omygod CHLOE! Do you like him? _If my cheeks weren't noticeable red before, they were now.

_We are so not talking about this now. _I texted back, avoiding the question.

_Are you in the car with him right now?_

_Yes!_

_Fine, but we are going to talk about this Chloe King_

**I'm so sorry that it took forever. You all probably hate me now, but please keep reading. I'll try to have the next update soon!**


	15. Basketball game DATE?

**I'm so sorry that it took forever. You all probably hate me now, but please keep reading. I'll try to have the next update soon! I'm sorry if I messed up some of the Basketball terms. I don't know basketball all that well. ENJOY AND REVIEW :) I own nothing. (Sadly)**

**I wanted to thank the person who reviewed yesterday. He/she reviewed as a guest but it really motivated me to continue the story, so thank you.**

We pulled into the school parking lot at six. "So I forgot that we have a half hour practice before the game. Are you okay just hanging around at the school? Jasmine is still out with Derek and I don't want you to be by yourself."

"I'll be fine. Besides, Amy will probably be here soon." Even though at the moment I was more concerned about hiding from Amy rather than going to find her.

"That's good." He started to walk towards the lockers but turned around. "Don't forget to sit near the bleachers so I can explain the game when I'm out."

"Will do,"

_Chloe, are you already at school?_ Amy texted.

_Yeah_

_Meet me in the gym? _I was half tempted not to go, just so I didn't have to answer all of her questions about my 'date' with Alek. What would I even say? But, a small part in my brain reasoned that if I didn't go into the gym, then Amy would take it as a sign that I do like him, so before I knew it, I was sitting on the bleachers next to her.

"Where's Paul?"

"He's around here somewhere." Her eyebrows rose dangerously high. "Now, spill Chloe King."

"There's nothing to spill." I lied, but not well enough.

"Oh my gosh! Chloe, you like him!" It wasn't a question.

"Of course I like him. He's a nice guy and a good _friend." _I put emphasis on the friend part of the sentence. She gave me an exasperated look.

"Not like as a friend, but like as someone you want to date!"

"Don't you think that he could be listening in?" I whispered.

"He's not even in the gym yet!" I looked away and stayed quiet. "You do like him. It is so obvious by your blush." She pointed out. "So, is kitty hat off the list then?"

"I don't think Brian has ever been on the list. He's just a friend. I can't see him as anything more than that. But Alek…" I trailed off for moment thinking about what could happen if Alek somehow felt the same way.

In a way, I feel like we could belong together. I can see us dating, finishing high school, and then going to college together all while defending ourselves against the Order. And although I don't like the last part, if I was with Alek, then it would be worth it.

"But Alek what?" Amy interrupted my thoughts.

"I can see a future with him. That is, if he even feels the same way." I expressed my doubts out loud. If he didn't like me, then I would be so embarrassed. Alek has always been a flirt with all the girls, so what's the likelihood that he feels the same way?

"He likes you."

"How on earth would you know that?"

"I've seen the way he looks at you, and that is enough proof."

"Yeah, the way he looks at me is exasperation because I am always somehow doing something stupid and endangering everyone around me."

"No, he looks at you like you're the only person in the universe that matters."

"Which is probably because he's believes the Uniter is the most-"

"Believe me or not," She interrupted. "But that Mai guy has it bad for you."

"So, if you get fouled, you get to shoot two free throws that are worth one point each?" I asked confusedly. Alek was sitting on the team bench when I was one bleacher above him so I could ask questions.

The game was tied at the moment, 30-30 with only the last quarter left. Alek had been playing almost the entire time before coach told him he needed to rest before the last quarter. Apparently, everyone was counting on him for the win during the last few minutes of the game.

"Yes and no." He smiled. "Sometimes when you get fouled, you only get one free throw, and then sometimes you take it out of bounds and throw it back into the game."

"See, I don't get why they can't all be the same. It's too confusing." He let out a soft chuckle before turning his gaze back onto the game.

"It's not all that confusing if you're used to the game. You should come to them more often. Maybe you'll finally learn how the game works."

"When's the next game?"

"Friday at seven. Are you going to come?"

"That sounds like a lot of fun." I said and his face brightened. "As long as you don't mind explaining the rules to me again."

"Of course I don't mind." The coach blew his whistle. "But I have to go play now. I'll catch you after the game?"

The last few minutes of the game were intense. The score was tied when Alek went in. It seemed like every time Alek would score a point, a player on the other team, number 13, would also score a point. It was down to the last few seconds, the game still tied 44-44, and our team had the ball. Alek went up to take a shot, but got hit by number 13. The crowd went completely silent.

I expected him to get up right away, but he stayed down. Panic shot through me. Was he hurt? Right before I got up to see if he was okay, he slowly got up.

"Two free throws. The first one is dead." The referee called out. The teams lined up to take the free throw. Alek missed the first shot, but made the second shot. We had won! Our side of the bleachers erupted in cheers and a majority of the people stormed the court to congratulate the team.

"Good game," I told Alek as he walked towards me and sat down. He looked oddly energetic even though he just finished a huge game.

"Thanks,"

"You don't want to go see all your adoring fans?" I pointed to the group of cheerleaders staring at us. Or, more accurately, glaring at me.

"Nah, I'm good right here."

"Are you okay? You went down pretty hard when you got hit."

"Please, that was nothing compared to some of the times you've hit me." He joked. "You hit quite hard, for a girl." I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him. "I'm going to go change. Do you mind waiting a few minutes?"

"No, not at all."

"Sweet," He said. "Maybe afterwards we can go grab something to eat?"

"That sounds nice."

"I'll be back in a few minutes." A second later, my phone buzzed. _R u still at the game? _Amy asked.

_Yeah, Alek is changing then we're going to get something to eat. Want to join? _I quickly texted back.

Amy: _U and Alek should be alone._

Me: _Y should we be alone?_

Amy: _So he will ask u out on a date!_

Me_: That's not going to happen._

Amy: _It will. __J Give me the details later. _

Me_: Good bye Amy._

Amy: _HAVE A GREAT TIME!_

"Are you ready to go?" Alek asked, startling me. His hair was wet, like he had just taken a shower. He changed into dark jeans and a black long sleeved shirt, and was carrying a bag.

"Yep. Where were you thinking about going?"

"I found this really good Chinese food place that I think you might like. Does that sound good?"

"It sounds amazing."

"Yo, Alek!" Someone yelled across the court. "Are you coming to the party? It should be a lot of fun."

"Nah, Chloe and I are going to grab some food. Maybe next time."

"Here is your food. Can I bring you anything else?" Our waitress said as placing down our food.

"I think we're okay. Thank you though." The waitress nodded before heading off to seat some other couple.

"How's Jasmine doing? Is she still out with Derek?" It was really amazing that she started to go out. I feel like she never is just a teenager, and now she's getting the chance to relax.

"I think so. She said that they were going to go see a movie then grab some dinner."

"Any word on when Valentina is going to get home?"

"Nope. Although, it's usually like this. She comes and goes randomly. Jasmine and I got used to it a long time ago."

"I'm sorry. That sucks. It must've been hard growing up when she was gone constantly."

"You get used to it. Now, it just lets Jasmine and I have a little freedom." Alek shrugged.

"You have to try this orange chicken. It's amazing." He said when holding up a piece between his chopsticks. When I hesitated he moved the chopsticks closer to my mouth so it was almost touching. "Try it." I opened my mouth and he fed it to me.

"Ahhhhh! Spicy!" Alek started laughing hysterically. After quickly swallowing it, I took a deep gulp of water to put out the fire.

"It's not spicy."

"It is so spicy. How did you not find that spicy?"

"Maybe because I'm not a wimp." He chuckled.

"Ha ha. You're hilarious."

"I know." We continued the meal joking around with each other and chatting about random things before we headed back to my apartment.

"Wow, we're using the front door. That's an improvement." I said when we reached the front door. "I had a good time tonight."

"I did to. We should go out again." His smile was absolutely radiant.

"That would be really nice." Did that mean that this was a date? Ugh, I should just suck it up and ask him if we went out on a date or not, but I don't want to ruin the mood if it isn't.

I was about to search for my keys when Alek leaned in and kissed me.


	16. A perfect ending to a disagreement

**I know it took forever, please forgive, read, and review.**

**SPOILER- THEY'RE FINALLY TOGETHER!**

I didn't react for a moment out of shock, and then I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me so our chests were touching. It felt like I belonged there. His hands that were once cupping my cheeks were now around my waist, pulling me even closer. I could feel his heart beating in his chest.

Suddenly, his phone started loudly ringing and we quickly pulled apart. "Hello?" He answered both breathlessly and annoyed. I realized that my own breath was a little heavy as well. My cheeks felt flushed from the kiss and chilly weather.

"You're home already?" The shock very apparent in his voice. "I'm with her right now… Yes, we'll be right over." He sighed as he quickly put his phone away.

"What was that about?" I asked him.

"Valentina is home. She would like us to meet her at the apartment."

"Is something wrong?"

"No, I think she just needs to tell us something." He motioned to his car, saying without words that we should get going. I tried to fill the silence with anything, but every time I opened my mouth, I froze. I didn't want to shatter the memory of the perfect kiss. Well, except for the getting interrupted part.

The car slowed to a stop and the silence was broken. "We should probably talk after Valentina." He suggested. I nodded my head like a silent idiot. Thoughts kept blooming into my head. What if he regretted the kiss? What if he didn't like me the same way that I think I care for him? What would happen if this just turned into a mistake? Would things get awkward between us?

These thoughts continued until we reached the apartment door, then suddenly, they changed to wondering what Valentina wanted at such a late time.

"Chloe, Alek," Valentina welcomed us as soon as we stepped through the door. "I'm glad you two could get here so quickly." It was then I noticed the tall, brown haired, probably mai, girl sitting in the couch. She suddenly stood up and walked over to us. I felt Alek stiffen behind me.

"Uniter," She stretched her hand out formally to shake mine. "It is an honor to meet you." She was wearing black jeans, a black tank top, and a leather jacket. Her long hair was up in a high ponytail, and she wore no makeup, probably because she did not need any.

"Chloe," I corrected her automatically. If she knew I was the Uniter, she was definitely mai. "And you are?"

"Mimi, I'm here to help with your protection." My head quickly whipped over to look at Valentina.

"No," I said loudly, on the verge of shouting. "It's bad enough that Jasmine and Alek have to risk their lives to protect me, but there is no way that another person is going to take that risk. Jasmine and Alek shouldn't even-"

"Chloe," Alek interrupted me. "I know you aren't a fan of being guarded, but please be rational about this." He spun me around to face him as he said this. His eyes were full of concern and were pleading with me to say it was okay.

"Be rational?" It had always annoyed me when people say that to me. "Okay, what about all the times you and Jasmine have had to risk your lives to try to protect me? Or about that time where Jasmine was stabbed in the back trying to protect me? I don't want you guys to be risking your safety so much, let alone another person."

"One of your lives is more important than all of ours put together Chloe." Valentina said behind me, but Alek spoke as if he did not hear her at all.

"What about the fact that just last night, you almost died! Or a few nights ago, on Friday, you almost died. It is too dangerous for you with the protection you have now. If I need to increase your security to ensure that you're going to be safe, that's what I'm going to do!" Anger and shock crossed my face.

"You knew! This entire time, you knew that I was going to get more security, didn't you? And you didn't bother to tell me?"

"I did know because I'm the one who requested that we added some more protection for you." Alek admitted. "I thought-"

"You added more security even though you know it's the last thing that I would've wanted?" The concerned look in his eyes disappeared and changed into anger and desperation to get me to agree with him.

"It's not about what you want anymore, but what is necessary to keep you alive."

"So in order to try to keep me alive, you're willing to put not only your life, but Mimi's life in danger?"

"I can speak for myself over here." Mimi pitched in behind us, but Alek spoke as if he did not here again.

"Mimi is one of the best fighters I've met. I have confidence that she will keep you safe and herself safe at the same time. Besides, it is our job to keep you safe, even if that means jumping in front of a bullet or taking a stab in the chest."

"I have eight lives, you have one. If I die, I'm just going to come back to life but if you die, you die for good!"

"And your lives are more important than mine. You can't die again!"

"It's not like I'm begging to die again, but I would rather lose on of my lives rather than you losing your only life."

"Mimi is going to be added to your security, no matter if it's what you want to do or not."

"No she isn't. I don't want any protection." We both stood there, staring at each other, waiting for the other to back down first, until Valentina spoke.

"Alek, Chloe," Both of our heads turned towards her. "Mimi is going to become part of the security detail as well as Derek." I opened my mouth to protest but before I could get a word out, she spoke again. "No arguments Chloe. This is for your own safety."

"Where have you been?" Meredith shouted at me the second that I opened the front door. "You said that you'd be home no later than ten, and its past midnight."

_Sorry mom, I was out meeting the new protection added on to my security that I do not want in the first place, _Probably would not work too well, so a fib would have to do. "Sorry mom, Alek and I lost track of time at the diner with the other guys."

"We'll talk about this tomorrow. We both need to get some sleep." I nodded and quickly ran upstairs to my room. I saw Alek lying across my bed when I opened my door.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered angrily.

"One, I'm your night guard." He held up a finger. "And two, I thought we were going to talk."

"Yes, but in the morning when my mother isn't in her room that's only fifteen feet away and I've gotten some sleep." I saw Alek roll his eyes before getting off my bed. I wanted to delay this talk for as long as I could.

"Then let's head onto the roof and talk." He suggested and then he was climbing out the window. Figuring he would not leave it alone until we talked, I followed him. What I didn't expect is a dozen red roses that were in his hands. "For you,"

"Alek, they're so beautiful. Thank you." I said when picking them up.

"I like you Chloe. I like you a lot," Alek began and my lips turned up towards a smile, which quickly faded with his next words. "But I refuse to be a second choice because you can't date Brian. I want you to choose me because you want to, and not because you can't have your first choice." He was staring at me the entire time that he spoke, but now he looked away, as if he was afraid of my answer.

"You're not a second choice Alek. Even if it was safe to date Brian, I wouldn't want to. He's just a friend, and that is all he's ever going to be to me no matter what. I don't feel the same way about him that I do for you." At the start of my little speech, Alek's eyes met mine, making me even more nervous than before.

"And what way is that?" He asked with a smile.

"Are you really going to make me say it?" When he didn't respond right away, I continued. "I feel complete. I feel safe when I'm with you. It's as if nothing in the world can ever harm me again. I don't care about anything except you. You make me so nervous sometimes, and sometimes you frustrate me to no end, but you make me so happy. When you smile, nothing in the world can compare. Even that annoying smirk of yours brings me to cloud nine."

That's when he leans in and kisses me.

**GO SPRING BREAK!**


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